The Devout Life - Trying

St. Francis de Sales

The Devout Life - St. Francis de Sales


It is too true that I who write about the devout life am not myself devout, but most certainly I am not without the wish to become so, and it is this wish which encourages me to teach you. A notable literary man has said that a good way to learn is to study, a better to listen, and the best to teach. And Saint Augustine, writing to the devout Flora, says, that giving is a claim to receive, and teaching a way to learn.

Eucharist A Different Bread - St. Augustine

Saint Augustine helps us to understand the dynamics of Holy Communion when referring to a kind of vision he had, in which Jesus said to him: "I am the food of the mature: grow, then, and you shall eat me. You will not change me into yourself like bodily food; but you will be changed into me"(Confessions, VII, 10, 18). 

Therefore, while the bodily food is assimilated by the body and contributes to its maintenance, the Eucharist is a different bread: we do not assimilate it, but it assimilates us to itself, so that we become conformed to Jesus Christ and members of his body, one with Him. 

Pope Benedict XVI

St Peter's Square 1 June, 2011

                                            

"Padre, Padre, per favore!" Fr. Robert Barron

In the spring of 2007, I was privileged to be a scholar in residence at the North American College in Rome.  During that period, I had the opportunity, on three occasions, to distribute communion at Mass in St Peter's Square.  Standing on one side of a partition, I watched as scores of people came forward to receive the Eucharist.  In the typically Italian style, things were a tad disorganized, and the faithful were compelled, in the press of the crowd, to stretch out their hands toward me.  I saw all sorts of hands--old and young, dirty and clean, line and unlined--reaching out for the bread of life.   When I would move along the partition, some would cry out to me plaintively, "Padre, Padre, per favore (Father, Father, please).  Never before in my priesthood, though I had distributed communion to thousands, had I had the sense of carrying food to those who were desperate for it.  Those faithful in St. Peter's Square embodied a truth that is deep in our Catholic tradition, though too infrequently stated:  the Eucharist is not a luxury, but a necessity, for without it, we would in the spiritual sense, starve to death.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit - St. Augustine

PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy. 
Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. 
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy. 
Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. 
Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy. 
Amen.

"Do not forget your Guardian Angel" Pope Benedict XVI

Do not forget your Guardian Angel

Vatican City, Oct 2, 2011 / 10:47 am 

Pope Benedict XVI used his Sunday Angelus address to remind Christians to call upon their guardian angel for help throughout life.

“Dear friends, the Lord is always near and active in human history, and follows us with the unique presence of His angels, that today the Church venerates as 'Guardian,' in other words those who minister God's care for every man,” the Pope told pilgrims gathered in Rome's St. Peter's Square, October 2.

“From the beginning until death,” he said, “human life is surrounded by their constant protection.”

The Pope's comments come on the Feast of the Guardian Angels, a day celebrating the Catholic Church's teaching that each person is assigned an angel to help protect and guide them through life. It was Pope Clement X who first extended the feast day to the entire Church in the early 17th century.

Pope Benedict also reflected upon today's Gospel, which contains a “particularly severe warning by Jesus, addressed to the chief priests and elders of the people,” for their lack of generosity towards God.

“Therefore I tell you,” Christ says in the Gospel of Matthew, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it,” comparing the Jewish religious authorities to vineyard workers who reject the will of the owner.

“God has a plan for his friends, but unfortunately man's response is often driven to infidelity, which results in rejection,” the Pope said, noting that “pride and selfishness prevent us from recognizing and accommodating even the most precious gift of God: his only begotten Son.”

“These words make us think of the great responsibility of those who in every age, are called to work in the vineyard of the Lord, especially in a role of authority, and the push us to renew our full fidelity to Christ,” the Pontiff said. He observed that the “rejected and crucified” Christ is now “the 'cornerstone' on which the foundation of all human existence and the whole world may rest with absolute certainty.”

This was the Pope's first Sunday Angelus address since returning from his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, 15-miles to the south of Rome. Some 20,000 pilgrims gathered to hear his address from the window of his study at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.

Pope Benedict said that the faithful must be “anchored in faith in the cornerstone who is Christ, abiding in Him like the branch that can not bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine.” He urged those assembled to be faithful to Jesus because “only in Him, through Him and with Him is the Church, the people of the New Covenant built.”

“The Servant of God Paul VI wrote about this,” the Pope said, quoting his predecessor: “the first fruit of the deepening consciousness of the Church itself is the renewed discovery of its vital relationship with Christ. A well-known thing, fundamental, essential, but never quite understood, meditated upon, celebrated enough.”

Pope Benedict concluded by imparting his apostolic blessing to those assembled.